NewEnergyNews: QUICK NEWS, March 11: YEILDCO, NEW ENERGY FUNDING W/O TAX CREDITS; WARREN BUFFETT, NEW ENERGY BARON; THE EMERGING VIRTUAL POWER PLANT OPPORTUNITY/

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

The challenge now: To make every day Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Impacts Of The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current Collapse
  • Weekend Video: More Facts On The AMOC
  • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Florida Insurance At The Climate Crisis Storm’s Eye
  • Weekend Video: The 9-1-1 On Rooftop Solar
  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 8-9:

  • Weekend Video: Bill Nye Science Guy On The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: The Changes Causing The Crisis
  • Weekend Video: A “Massive Global Solar Boom” Now
  • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 1-2:

  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
  • --------------------------

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    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

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    WEEKEND VIDEOS, June 17-18

  • Fixing The Power System
  • The Energy Storage Solution
  • New Energy Equity With Community Solar
  • Weekend Video: The Way Wind Can Help Win Wars
  • Weekend Video: New Support For Hydropower
  • Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

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    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

  • ---------------
  • WEEKEND VIDEOS, August 24-26:
  • Happy One-Year Birthday, Inflation Reduction Act
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Monday, March 11, 2013

    QUICK NEWS, March 11: YEILDCO, NEW ENERGY FUNDING W/O TAX CREDITS; WARREN BUFFETT, NEW ENERGY BARON; THE EMERGING VIRTUAL POWER PLANT OPPORTUNITY

    YEILDCO, NEW ENERGY FUNDING W/O TAX CREDITS Beyond Old Incentives: Unlocking A New Source Of Solar Project Capital

    Andrew Redinger and Daniel Brown, 5 March 2013 (Solar Industry)

    “…[T] he U.S. power market…[from 2008 to 2011] experienced a 1% compounded annual increase in installed capacity. Electricity sales statistics have been flat over the same period…By contrast, wind installations have increased by 21%, and solar installations have increased by 73%...despite the fact that the levelized cost of energy (inclusive of tax benefits) for renewable technologies is dramatically above that of conventional combined- cycle natural gas plants. In July 2012, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated the levelized cost of a conventional combined cycle at $66.10/MWh, wind at $96.00/MWh and solar photovoltaics at $152.70/MWh…In 2012, average wholesale prices at PJM West were $40.18/MWh, a decrease of 22% from 2011…[at MISO Illinois it was $32.06/MWh, down 17%.; at ERCOT Houston it was $35.91/MWh, down 43%; and at Palo Verde it was $30.03/MWh, down 18%.]…This decline in prices is highly correlated to declining natural gas prices, due to the shale gas phenomenon. In 2011, the average Henry Hub was $4.02/MMBtu, while in 2012, it was $2.75/ MMBtu, a decline of 31.5%....

    “...[T]he average 2012 RPS target of the 31 states with RPS was 7.6%. As of November 2012, these RPS targets had been met, with 8.0% of eligible generation being renewable…[T]hese standards should continue to be a driver of growth, as the 2015 average target is 10.6% and the 2020 average target is 16.4%...In an era of marginal increases in required capacity, with the price of wholesale power across the country declining, when tax equity is increasingly constrained, how can the renewable energy industry sustain its growth?”

    “…For more than a decade, the public equity markets have been a tremendous source of capital for master limited partnerships (MLPs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs)…These assets typically generate significant cash flow from long-term revenue contracts. MLPs and REITs pay the majority of this cash flow out to investors as dividends…[P] ublic equity investors value these assets at 7% to 8% distributable cash flow yield, which is the equivalent of a levered equity discount rate…[Renewable power assets] are, in many ways, higher quality…[They are non-cyclical and typically have revenue contracts of 15 to 20 years with investment-grade counterparties. If investors value MLP and REIT assets at 7% to 8% distributable cash flow yield, there is good reason to believe they will value renewable assets at similar, if not lower, yields…

    “Due to current Internal Revenue Service rules, renewable assets are not eligible for the tax-advantaged status enjoyed by MLPs and REITs…[W]e believe a vehicle for accessing this low-cost equity capital exists today…A YieldCo is simply a C corporation that acts as a holding company for renewable assets. Due to the myriad of tax benefits available to renewable energy assets - such as bonus or MACRS depreciation, investment tax credits, and production tax credits - the YieldCo vehicle can carry forward net operating losses and shield taxes for extended periods of time. As additional assets are developed and/or acquired, the tax shield period is extended even further…By allowing renewable energy projects to access mid- to high-single-digit costs of capital, YieldCos can enable the renewable energy industry to sustain the momentum it has been building.”

    WARREN BUFFETT, NEW ENERGY BARON Buffett’s MidAmerican Has 6% of U.S. Wind, Will Own 14% of Solar

    Will Wade, March 1, 2013 (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

    “Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. accounts for 6 percent of U.S. wind-energy capacity and will generate about 14 percent of the nation’s solar power when it finishes three solar farms under development.”

    “When the projects are complete, the company will have invested about $13 billion in its renewable-energy portfolio, Buffett wrote in his annual letter to shareholders…”

    THE EMERGING VIRTUAL POWER PLANT OPPORTUNITY Virtual Power Plants; Demand Response, Supply-Side, Mixed Asset, and Wholesale Auction Smart Grid Aggregation and Optimization Networks

    1Q 2013 (Pike Research/Navigant)

    “…[A] virtual power plant (VPP)…[uses] software systems to remotely and automatically dispatch and optimize generation, demand-side, or storage resources (including plug-in electric vehicles and bi-directional inverters) in a single, secure web-connected system. VPPs can provide extraordinary value and services to transmission and distribution (T&D) grid infrastructure, as well as revenue streams to myriad stakeholders engaged in the provision of electric power.

    “The primary goal of a VPP is to achieve the greatest possible profit for asset owners while at the same time maintaining the proper balance of the electricity grid…”

    “From the outside, the VPP looks like a single power production facility which publishes one schedule of operation and which can be optimized from a single, remote site. From the inside, the VPP can combine a rich diversity of independent resources into a network via sophisticated planning, scheduling, and bidding of distributed energy resource (DER)-based services…

    “…Pike Research forecasts that vendor revenue from VPPs, in an average forecast scenario, will reach $3.6 billion in 2020…”

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